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Volume 7, Number 4—August 2001
THEME ISSUE
West Nile Virus
West Nile Virus

West Nile Virus Infection in Birds and Mosquitoes, New York State, 2000

Kristen A. Bernard*, Joseph G. Maffei*, Susan A. Jones*, Elizabeth B. Kauffman*, Gregory D. Ebel*, Alan P. Dupuis*, Kiet A. Ngo*, David C. Nicholas*, Donna M. Young*, Pei-Yong Shi*, Varuni L. Kulasekera†, Millicent Eidson*, Dennis J. White*, Ward B. Stone‡, Laura D. Kramer*, and NY State West Nile Virus Surveillance Team
Author affiliations: *New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York, USA; †New York City Department of Health, New York, New York, USA; ‡Department of Environmental Conservation, Albany, New York, USA

Main Article

Table 4

Comparison of infection in vertebrates and minimal infection rate in mosquitoes for WN virus in the epicenter of the New York epizootic of 2000

MIRa
Borough % positive  No.human  No.equine Culex Cx. Culex Cx. Aedes Ae.
or county crows (n)b casesc casesd pipiens pipiens-restuanse species salinarius vexans japonicus
Staten Island 92% (48) 10 1 11.42 9.9 6.92 2.61 0.79 NCf
Brooklyn 73% (48) 2 0 3.12 1.42 NAg 0.67 NA NC
Manhattan 85% (34) 1 0 2.91 3.86 NA NA NA NC
Queens 64% (25) 1 0 0.16 0.24 0 0.2 NA NA
Suffolk 70% (188) 0 8 NC 2.74 NC NC 0.40 NA
Bronx 44% (9) 0 2 2.38 NA NA 0.87 0 NC
Rockland 76% (280) 0 0 NA 1.98 NA NA 0.44 NA
Westchester 44% (128) 0 0 0.51 0.73 NC NC 0 0.43
Nassau 56% (147) 0 4 NC 0.28 NC NC 0.45 NC

aMIR = minimal infection rate per 1,000 mosquitoes. Mosquito species were included only if a minimum of 1,000 total mosquitoes was collected throughout the season for the county. MIR was calculated as (number of WN virus-positive pools by RT-PCR/total mosquitoes tested) x 1,000.
bPercentage WN virus-positive crows throughout the transmission season with total number of crows tested in parentheses.
cHuman cases reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2).
dEquine cases reported by S. Trock (personal communication).
eCx. pipiens and Cx. restuans were not separated and were pooled together.
fNC = not collected.
gNA = not applicable because <1,000 mosquitoes were collected.

Main Article

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Main Article

1P. Bryon Backenson, Ivan Gotham, Yoichiro Hagiwara, Geraldine S. Johnson, Gary Lukacik, Kathryn Schmit, and Amy L. Willsey, Division of Epidemiology, New York State Department of Health

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